GE's Evolution Series Contributes to Lower Carbon Footprint

Posted on June 18, 2009

Recent Tier 2 emissions-compliant locomotive fuel consumption testing indicates that the GE Evolution Locomotive has an annual positive GHG impact equivalent to removing 35 cars from the road, or planting 55 acres of trees. The equivalent Green House Gas (GHG) reduction would be more than 200 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or more than 4,000 tons over the 20-year life of the locomotive.

Lorenzo Simonelli, President and CEO of GE Transportation stated, "GE has invested USD$400 million over eight years to develop the most technologically advanced, fuel-efficient and low-emissions freight locomotive to-date. Fuel-efficiency delivers a real competitive advantage to our railway customers around the world as they lower their operating costs and minimize their carbon footprint worldwide.”

Moving freight by rail compared to trucks reduces fuel use, emissions and highway congestion. According to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), railroads are three or more times more fuel efficient than trucks. Trains move one ton of freight an average of 436 miles on each gallon of fuel. A single train can take 280 trucks off the highways; and because the average size of a truck is equal to almost four automobiles, that's the same amount of space that 1,100 automobiles would occupy.

GE Transportation has delivered more than 3,200 Evolution Series locomotives to its railway customers operating in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, China, Australia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Egypt.
Approximately 17,000 GE locomotives, including the Evolution Series Locomotives, are in use in more than 50 countries around the world.